Why This Heat Wave Is Total Chaos for My Birds

Added: 2026-05-22

[00:00:01]Okay, gang.

[00:00:04]It's a million billion degrees out, so let's go look at the pond and pretend we can swim in it. Actually, the pond's looking rough right now.

[00:00:15]There was a day I used to be embarrassed to show you that, but you're going TO SEE IT ALL. HI, TURKEYS.

[00:00:25]OH, there's a frog calling. Bullfrogs are out.

[00:00:30]So, the pond is looking a bit of a hot mess.

[00:00:35]It happens.

[00:00:38]Um, it's just been windy, so all the debris and the leaves and the pollen have blown in. Oh, the chickens are talking.

[00:00:58]We don't get to hear them talk too often.

[00:01:02]So, that's fun.

[00:01:04]Um, I Let's see. Normally, at this point, I'd be doing an egg check, but I honestly did it this morning because it was too darn hot to do now, and I expect that nobody's laying eggs in this heat.

[00:01:19]Huh, buddy? I know this guy is the bottom of our pecking order. Look how beat up he looks. They knocked all your tail feathers off.

[00:01:28]He's fine.

[00:01:30]He's absolutely fine. There's nothing wrong other than he's the youngest turkey in the group and he had his feathers knocked off as he tried to come up in the hierarchy and it didn't work out so good for him. They'll come back.

[00:01:44]He'll mol and they'll come back. But right now he's looking pretty sad.

[00:01:50]Um, we had a little bit of rain overnight, which isn't terrible. I have to check our new egg hidey holes.

[00:01:58]Nothing in there yet. Like I said, I didn't expect there to be. It's just too hot. It's too hot. It's too hot for them. It's too hot for me.

[00:02:09]Although, you know, the birds do just fine, right? They're fully insulated.

[00:02:14]Uh, I don't know if you made the connection, right? Feathers are amazing things. So, if you have a down jacket or a down pillow, you know what down is like. Well, those are feathers. Um, it's warm. It's insulating.

[00:02:31]It stays cooler if you're laying on it as a pillow.

[00:02:36]It's something that protects from both the heat and the cool.

[00:02:43]And so the birds fare the best out of everybody. I'm just checking the tree line for eggs in case.

[00:02:50]Again, there's sort of a little crevice here they like to lay in, but they haven't thankfully cuz if I don't collect them now, somebody asked me the other day like what happens? Does a predator get them? We don't have ground predators that come through this area based on all the protection that we have up, but aerial predators. Yeah. And I talked about in a recent video, well, I guess it wasn't so recent, maybe a couple months ago, about figuring out that it was the crows that were coming in and taking my eggs, boogers. So, if the eggs are laid out in the wild or out in the areas out here and I don't collect them in a timely manner, yes, the crows will come in and take them for me.

[00:03:40]But if you're a bird, it's a great day. They don't really feel the heat, and if they do, they can go swimming.

[00:03:48]There's plenty of shade, which I am now standing in because it's hot. Uh, and they're insulated from it. They don't really have a problem with it. They fluff up their feathers. If they need to get some more air between their feathers and their Oh, that breeze feels good.

[00:04:03]um between their feathers and their skin, they'll fluff up a little bit and then they're protected from that sun beating down on them. So, when you see the birds out and in they're in the bright baking sun and you wonder like why it's, you know, it's hot.

[00:04:18]They don't feel it.

[00:04:21]They don't feel it at all. Whoa.

[00:04:24]Well, that was new. Did you see that? I hope that was caught. I know it was in the shadow and the angle was probably bad, but that guinea fell just went after that turkey. That's hilarious. Um, she he it we're I'm assuming it's a he at this point cuz I haven't gotten any guinea eggs. Um, but I've been calling it a she since it was a little wee thing. So, a she, it shall be, even though it's a he. Uh, follow that train of logic, will you?

[00:04:52]Just absolutely tore off after Mr. Turkey here. Now, she's been raised with the turkey. She thinks she's a turkey.

[00:05:00]Uh, so yeah, who knows? That's funny.

[00:05:03]Haven't seen that. Was the first time I've seen any sort of It's not aggression. I mean, you know, obviously there's no fight happening.

[00:05:11]It's all better now. Everything's done.

[00:05:13]But that's the first time I've seen the guinea do anything other than sort of rely on her turkey buddies as friends.

[00:05:20]So, some of our turkey, since we're at the height of breeding season here, are looking a little rough. Actually, a lot of them are looking rough. So, we saw our poor little man over there. He's bottom of the peck in order. He's not even allowed in the group right now.

[00:05:36]He'll be all right. Don't feel sad for him. These two guys here are also younger. They retained a little bit more of their tail, but not much.

[00:05:47]And then as you get higher and higher in the pecking order, you have more and more tail feathers.

[00:05:52]So essentially the one with the most tail feathers left at the end of the season is the top of the pecking order.

[00:05:58]We've got two that look like they're sort of the standing winners right now.

[00:06:04]And I'm laughing because it's just feathers. It doesn't hurt them. Feathers molt out anyway. So the feathers come out anyway and then they grow back. So, there's nothing that's actually happening to the birds other than they're accelerating the loss of their fe tail feathers.

[00:06:21]Really not a big deal. Um, so I just wanted to make that clear because I, you know, I laugh about it. They look so goofy without their tails, but honestly, by fall they'll have their full tails back and they won't be breeding anymore, so they won't be sparring and they're nobody will lose their tails. But for now, they look kind of goofy with like one one tail feather left, half a tail feather left. Doesn't matter. Doesn't stop them from shaking their tail feathers, does it?

[00:06:50]So, I think on that note, I'm finally going to try and get inside and get cooled down before I suffer from heat stroke or anything. Uh, and the good news is in a couple of days, we're going to get really cold again and it's going to be like close to freezing. Woohoo.

[00:07:07]Um, I hope you're all having a fabulous day. I hope it's beautiful by you. It really is beautiful here despite the heat. And uh, yeah, until next time. I got work to do. Bye for now.